I’m moving again, and the timing is notably weird.
I moved into this room on Adams Point in Oakland, Calif., on April 1. Which meant I picked up a front door key, parked my car, and went to the airport for NCAA rounds 1 and 2 at Gonzaga (where Utah’s 2023-24 season ended).
The 2024-25 season began today, while I’m hauling boxes back across the Bay to the peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose. It’s as if this were a summer getaway to Lake Merritt.
Adams Point is one of most pleasant neighborhoods I’ve ever resided in, but it’s expensive, and too far from my chess classes. I’ve been working hard, and driving long.
How much homework did I put into college basketball this summer? None. I couldn’t even tell you how many teams are in the Big 12 Conference. Utah, Colorado, Kansas State, and at least nine others.
I learned yesterday that the media put Utah in the middle of the Big 16 Conference, and not in the AP Top 25. I think that’s odd, because the 2024-25 Utes could be better than the NCAA-round-of-16 bunch from two years back.
You can see what the voters are thinking: Utah lost all-everything Alissa Pili to the Minnesota Lynx (who in turn will lose Pili to the Golden State Valkyries), no further analysis required.
The ESPN broadcast team — the great Krista Blunk (the best of the Sacramento Monarchs broadcast team) and Joe Cravens — discussed that Monday morning. Pili’s gone, but Johnson/McQueen/Vieida are now grizzled veterans, while last season’s newcomers played an unexpected lot in Kneepkens’ absence.
2023-24 required that everyone compensate for the loss of Kneepkens. 2024-25 requires the everyone compensate for the loss of Pili in the same fashion, and everyone has improved, we must think.
Utah 105 Southern Utah 52
One of the reasons I prefer sports journalism as a hobby instead of a profession is that if I want to skip press conferences, I can.
After some losses, no one’s in a mood to talk to anybody else. After some wins — like Monday’s opening day win against the Thunderbirds — what’s there to say?
It would be customary to ask about forward Mayè Tourè, the all-Atlantic-10 transfer starting at the five for Utah in place of Alissa Pili. She was one of six Utah players to score in double figures, shooting from far away and from up close, and contributing more assists and takeaways than giveaways.
I’d also expect someone in the press pool to mention sophomore forward Reese Ross, who shot 6-for-6 and led the team with 7 rebounds. Ross was an interesting freshman because she has that Warner Bros. Tasmanian Devil quality, a small tornado of dust and fury. That has not changed.
Jenna made every shot inside the arc. Ines was, as usual, wherever Southern Utah didn’t want her to be. Gianna’s back!!
But besides the excitement of opening day with thousands of screaming children (“Future Scholars Day” is a euphemism I couldn’t use with a straight face), it was a day at the office.
Arizona State 74 Jacksonville State 66
The visiting Gamehens led by 3 at the start of the fourth quarter, then missed 13 straight field goal attempts in a row. Senior guard Tyi Skinner, who missed last season with an injury, scored a game-high 30 for Arizona State.
Jacksonville St. has a forward who has evidently improved her free throw shooting by attempting them from the right elbow.
What are basketball coaches teaching to the youngest players these days about free throwing? To align their nose with the center of the rim, or their shooting shoulder? This Jacksonville St. kid, a left-handed shooter, made 5-of-6 from two steps to the right of center.
Why doesn’t anyone teach young players one of two most proper ways to do this? One, like Elena Delle Donne, who makes 95% of them by minimizing the overhand FT motion. Two, underhanded, when two hands on the ball mean the shot is coming from dead center, with much less chance of the error that comes from relying on one wrist or one shoulder.